Thanks Acerholic. Its really bizarre indeed. I am over the major mountain range (Cascades) from Seattle and Bellingham, so we do get more extreme weather than much of the Pacific Northwest. Though this is unusual for even this side of the range. The doubled over tree was the 'Seiryu' which I promptly shook off after the picture. I didn't see any breaks so it should be OK. I shook off the paperbarks too!
21°C this afternoon. We had a pizza outdoors, in the shade because it was too hot in full sun with no wind (and a glass of Cardonnay). The "terrasses" (the tables outside) were all full. La dolce vita... But the rain is coming back next week.
OMG here in Vancouver BC we have a wind warning yet again (at least it isn’t raining). I have had 75% of my trees fall over.. I can’t believe it some are 15 gallon pots!!!! These poor trees are trying so hard in this crap weather. Ive had to go out and move some, a couple have broken branches - THE HORRORS OF IT ALL!!! Hope your all doing well.
I feel for you, Lisa. The wind is bad here too - lots of power outages in the area but no damage so far in my garden.
Thanks @Margot I’ve had the odd tree in the past fall in a wind storm but usually 1-5 gallon tiny pots.. This is unreal.. my parents are in Ashcroft and they are going through the same thing. I had sheets drying on the laundry line and I brought them in out of fear they end up in the neighbours yard….
and the winds are making their way up the valley now towards chilliwack. Not too bad yet but the gusts are pretty high.
We feel for you guys down on the coast. Watching the weather channel issue that high wind warning at this time of year - with sub 990 mb of pressure - was pretty surprising. And now they are threatening potential flooding for the Coke again. Let's hope that doesn't materialize. Today, we've had a bit of everything, except for sunshine. Lots of rain overnight, wind, hail this morning, more rain - you get the picture. But the worst thing is that none of the half dozen hybrids I got last year survived the winter. The two basic palmatums are doing well, just as if we hadn't even had winter. Very strange. I think they might have been just too young to handle the nasty winter we had here. More rain in the forecast for the rest of this week, so no danger of getting sunburn just yet!
Thank you Lisa. I think that the trouble was that winter couldn't decide what it was going to be. One week it was way below zero, the next we are hovering slightly above. And so it was all winter long. Raining and pretty windy right now, and much the same expected for the rest of this week. It was only a few days ago that we had more snow up here! Couldn't believe it. Just the local mountains have snow now and hopefully we are done with the white stuff until later this year.
So sorry to hear about the strong winds you are having in BC. There is nothing worse when the trees are in full leaf. I do hope everybody's gardens are OK. @Lisa Harry, they will recover Lisa and put out second flush very soon. So do not worry about a few lost branches. @Keith Elliott, your weather you are having is so hard on the cultivars, they are not as strong as the acer palmatums. But perhaps that's a signal to plant those now. My thoughts go out to you, I know how hard you have worked to get them to establish. @Otto Bjornson , again I'm flabbergasted to hear you are having these strong gusts in May. Good luck with your lovely trees. @Margot glad to hear you have no damage, but power outages at this time of year due to weather must be very strange. Here in England last night we had the worst thunder and lightning storm I think I've ever seen, plus what the forecasts said was 'blood rain'. This is a mixture of Sahara dust and rain making everything look quite a mess this morning. Sadly I think we are all going to have to get used to these extremes. 'Chin up everyone '
If only we had all woken up a decade or two ago! Yes, this weather is not unique to us here in B.C. It now reaches right around the world. Our B.C. government has already warned us about the probability of another major fire season. When we were driving in to Kamloops a couple of weeks ago, there was a forest fire between us and the Thompson River. Oddly enough when I was at the local clinic in Chase undergoing a breathing test, the nurse told me that her husband is a firefighter, and that particular fire was suspicious. Arson in other words. That's all we need this early in the year! Heaven knows, mother nature does a good enough job. While we do get winds up here, it is the coastal areas that suffer the most. As the storms come in off the North Pacific, Vancouver island gets the brunt of it. As far as the cultivars go, none of which survived unfortunately, I have noticed that there are a number of such trees within 20 or so kilometres of here that are doing just fine. Every one of them is of the dark purple leaved variety. Perhaps that should tell me something? At least both the hop plants have taken off with a vengeance this year.
@Keith Elliott how did you guys fair during the fire and flood season we last had? My parents moved to Ashcroft in December we needed special permissions to get them into their new place. My dads wife was so sad when the weeping waterfall Japanese maple I got her died over the winter as she didn’t protect it enough. I’m gonna try to bring her a new one this summer. They weren’t prepared for the cold they moved too. Many say it is much colder than normal for them as well.
Good morning Lisa. Right where we are there can't be any flooding, as we're on the side of the mountain, overlooking the North Shuswap lake. But the forest fires were something else. We were threatened repeatedly, but the closest any of them got to us was about 2 or 3 kilometres away on the other side of the mountain from us. Luckily it didn't come over the top of the mountain and then head down towards us. There were a number of other fires over by Celista, about 10 kms away. And then there was a big one on the other side of the lake which we actually watched as it started up. There wasn't enough manpower or equipment to fight it at the time due to other more pressing fires. Let's hope we don't get a repeat of last years' fire performance.
Spectacular lightning strikes light up the night skies - latest updates It was like this for two hours last evening. At times it looked like daylight at 11pm, so bright and very loud.
Ouch! Here, we desperately need some rain. 3.4 mm since May 1st. The crops of wheat and barley will be particularly affected. Not to mention the damage done to fruit trees and vineyards by the frost a few weeks ago. We can't find sunflower oil in supermarkets, the prices of food are soaring, not to mention petrol and other sources of energy. ... and I say to myself "What a wonderful world"... ^^
@AlainK I wish I could give you some of ours.. I’ve lived in Vancouver my entire life you think I’d be accustomed to the wet weather, but I am not… The cost of food is certainly soaring.. I put a veggie garden in this year again specifically for that reason. At least we all have gorgeous gardens to look at during these unprecedented times.
Because of my back problems, I couldn't dig my patch last year, and none of my sons could be here to help. So it was a "fallow year". This year, my eldest son came to prepare where I could raise somme vegetables. I ordered "grafted" tomatoes -pretty expensive- that are supposed to resist better to various diseases, and I've just planted them today. I also put some "French marigold" (Tagetes patula) in-between, they are supposed to keep nematodes away. I will also sow some Calendula (it's not too late!). Old gardeners would do this, they say that the tomato plants are healthier. We'll see... ;0)
Pacific Northwest has been a bunch of rain and wind, it rained and hailed today! Last year in June we had a epic heatwave of 111 and this year its just rain, rain, rain. As long as we don't get a fire season again... it's for the best. The last number of years we have had crazy fires in BC, Oregon and California... Probably Washington too.. :/
Here, in Estonia, 2022 March was 87% drier (we got only 13% of usual monthly precipitation) than the long time average, and 1.0 °C warmer than the long time average. For 2022 April: 14% drier, 0,9 °C colder. May is definitely drier and much colder (and windier) than the long time average. My estimation would be at least 2 °C colder. Thanks to lot of cold sunny windy days, our power prices hit summertime records - 368.88 €/MWh today (lot of subsidized, but still overpriced "green" solar and wind energy in the "market").
Tbh Sulev I'm dreading this Winter, as are many. But for places like Estonia it must be very worrying. Thoughts are with you.
Thanks, Derek! I'm worried about another cold spring and long drought that may shrink my harvest. I'm in a better situation than most of other people here, because my garden provides me with great share of food and I have a wood stove heating (and own forest). Those who rely only on supermarkets and electric heating, they are in real trouble.
